"Babur meeting with Sultan Ali Mirza at the Kohik River", from "The Memoirs of Babur". Watercolor and gold on paper, painted about 1590. Part of the exhibit "Art and Stories of Mughal India" at the Cleveland Museum of Art in Cleveland, Ohio.

The Mughal ruler Babur was born in 1483, and came to power in 1494. (His father was tending some pigeons in a dovecote constructed next to a cliff. The foundations gave way, and he plunged to his death in the ravine below.) He lived in Fergana, in the far eastern portion of what is now Uzbekistan. His uncles were eager to replace him, or, barring that, install his younger brother Jahangir on the throne. Moreover, relatives ruled most of the small states surrounding him, and were eager to conquer his small nation.

Babur immediately sought allies in his desperate quest for security. One of the first he met with was Sultan Ali Mirza Safavi ("mirza" meaning "prince"), leader of the Safaviyya.

Safi-ad-din Ardabili was a Kurdish mystic. Living in Gilan province of Iran on the Caspian Sea beginning in 1276, he started a new school (tariqa) of Islam known as Safaviyya. His teachings emphasized feeding the poor, aiding the weak, communal meals, socializing in a zawiya (lodge), sama (a form of worship that involves singing, playing instruments, dancing, recitation of poetry, prayers, and wearing symbolic attire), and dhikr (short phrases or prayers are repeatedly recited silently or aloud). Safi died in 1334, but he'd established a dynasty that turned militant by 1450. By 1501, the Safavids had conquered all of Persia (modern Iran). They also ruled Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bahrain, Georgia, Iraq, Kurwait, the North Caucasus, and parts of Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. It collapsed in 1722.

Sultan Ali Mirza had assumed leadership of the emerging Safavid Empire in 1488. He was leading his people in the conquest of Uzbekistan when Babur met with him. The meeting was an extremely important one, for by aligning with the Safavids Babur would make a military alliance that could help him fend off his jealous relatives and keep his throne secure.